How to market to the generations 2007 Duane "DJ" Sprague

L H M A D V E R T I S I N G
The Generational Imperative
Generational Marketing
and Advertising Strategy
2007
Duane “DJ” Sprague

To Be A More Effective
Marketer You Must:
 Understand your customers enough to get inside their head
 Understand their perspective and generational viewpoints
 See advertising as they would like to see it
 Use the mediums they consume
 Speak and communicate in a way they understand and prefer
 Walk a mile in their shoes
 Match your sales staff to your customers
 Understand that “one size does not fit all”
 Do not be a lazy marketer

4 Generations of America
 The Silents
 62-80
 The Boomers
 43-61
 The X’ers
 26-42
 The Millennials
 Birth to 25

The Silents Overview
 Born 1927-1945
 62-80 years of age
 Grew up before “malls” when the local
shopkeeper and clerks knew their name and
stood behind their products
 Courtesy is very important to them
 Give them genuinely personal service

 Chat with them, make them feel comfortable
 Develop a relationship with them
 Be more formal: please, thank-you, Sir,
Ma’am
 Prompt and full responses to their questions
 Remember the days of full-service gas
stations, and clerks that carried out the
groceries to the car? They do

 They are patriotic, politically active, news reading,
plugged-in
 They are open to new products and services because
it makes them feel “young” and “alive”
 Receptive to advertising, changing brands and trying
new products
 Spend freely on grandchildren, travel, cars and
housing
 Have a desire to grab life by the horns while they can

 A passion to connect with their grandchildren
 They remember the solidarity of the American
family from their childhood when divorce and
broken families were the rare exception, and they
want to be that stability for their grandchildren
 Solid people with good-old-fashioned American
values (read “The Greatest Generation” by Tom
Brokaw)

Marketing to the Silents
 Develop a relationship
 Give personal service with respect and courtesy
 Use large fonts and contrasting colors (Gen X and
millennial designers don’t get it!)
 Use long copy and tell your story
 Make use of rewards and reminders (remember
“Green Stamps” and “Blue Chip” stamps? Service
and birthday reminder cards?)

 Nostalgia works! Bring back “the good old days” of the 50’s
 Bargains, promotions, coupons and discounts work
 Remove the risk because this is not a risk taking generation
 Don’t hype or lie. Prove your claims and back it up!
 Stand by your word and be a “vendor of honor”
 Group events, seminars and experiential opportunities work
 Educate. They are hungry to learn
 Use inter-generational images and life stages

Media Consumption
 This is the TV, Movie, Magazine and
Newspaper generation
 Long form advertising and infomercials
work!
 Long form direct mail that tells the story
and explains the offer and benefits

How To Make It Work
 Don’t clutter your TV ad with too many visuals
moving too fast, or fast copy reads
 Don’t clutter your radio spot with too many audio
layers. Make it audibly pure and clear
 Use talent they can relate to that is courteous and
sincere
 Use large fonts and contrasting colors
 Explain your offer and guarantee it
 Use older sales people who “get it”

How To Make It Work
 Link advertising, education and promotion
 Portray real people
 Utilize multi-generational and emphasize love
and fun with their kids and grand kids
 Use repetition

How To Make It Work
 Pictures and images
 Emotional touchstones: security,
independence, information, intimations of
immortality
 Focus on convenience and “in and out” as
shopping is not a pleasant experience for
them

The Boomers Overview
 Born 1946-1964
 Age 43-61 today
 The largest generation alive! 76 million strong and
43% of the civilian work force
 Workaholics
 Wealthy, free spending, open to new brands,
products and services, and receptive to advertising
 Staggering purchasing power
 Demanding customers and not blindly brand loyal

 Boomers and X’ers tend to distrust authority
 They value “values” and have a moralistic
perspective
 They are becoming empty nesters
 Workaholics, and they define themselves by their
careers
 They are time stressed and they seek fast and
convenient no-hassle, reliable, and they are willing to
pay for it

 Two groups of Boomers:
 First wave is the Vietnam Generation, who are the
idealistic social activists of the ’60s
 Second wave is the “Me” Generation, and grew up in the
“time to party” era of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s
 They share one credo: Forever Young
 Strong sense of family and right and wrong
 Optimistic, but want to make the smartest possible purchase

Marketing to the Boomers
 Tend to respond to celebrity endorsements
 They are receptive to advertising and new products
and services, and buying habits and brand
preferences can be changed
 Make them feel young and smart
 Present life as one continual ageless adventure
 The first wave will especially respond to socially and
environmentally responsible companies

 They love meaningful detail that differentiates a
product or ads real value
 They are news hounds and like their information
organized like USA Today. No cute story telling, just
the facts
 Use large type and contrasting colors
 Give them fast and easy shopping and selection
 Connect them with their families
 They prefer text more than any other generation

 Make sure your advertising, marketing and sales staff
are not all younger than Boomers
 They love experiential, eco and learning vacations
 Hot categories: cars, high tech, real estate, home
improvement, fitness, nutrition, skin and haircare,
cosmetic surgery and sporting goods
 What’s important: staying young, finances, their kids
and grandkids, career

Media Consumption
 Broadcast and cable TV, talk radio, classic rock,
public radio and public TV
 Movies
 USA Today and local newspaper
 Magazines (news, general interest and special
interest)
 Internet
 Direct mail

How To Make It Work
 Provide fast service and instant gratification
 Make your company socially or environmentally
responsible
 Save them time
 Make them feel younger
 Recognize their career accomplishments and
aspirations, and their desire to connect with their
family
 Help them attain their financial objectives

The X’ers Overview
 Born 1965-1981
 26-42 years of age in 2007
 About 33% fewer of them than Boomers and Millennials
 40% of them had lived in a single parent HH by age 16
 The most skeptical and cynical of older generations and
institutions

 They offer loyalty to their own generation, but not
institutions
 They spent less time around older people than any
other generation, and there is a significant disconnect
between them and older people
 More of a “Me” generation than any other
 Self-focused and self-immersed
 Inclination to change jobs frequently

 The “in debt generation” as they have expensive taste and
know quality due to their dual income, workaholic, guilt
ridden Boomer parents who spoiled them
 They insist on a healthy work/personal life balance
 Techno savvy and excellent multi-taskers
 Take pride in their acceptance and tolerance of all
ethnicities and lifestyles
 Identify with pop culture of the ‘70s and ‘80s, and like to
poke fun at it

Marketing to the X’ers
 NOT watching TV news or reading newspapers (build
your web sites and mail business)
 Cynical of advertising hype and laugh at it
 Street smart and advertising savvy
 They need to be convinced with proof, facts
 And W.O.M. from their peers
 They feel disempowerd to change government or
institutions

 They enjoy unexpected and clever tricks and
surprises, irony, twists and turns and mystery in
advertising. Have some fun
 Give them options and choices
 Indifferent to “brand” and skeptical of commercials
 Mix and match multiple media in unique ways
 Show them how they can have fun
 Celebrate their open mindedness to diversity

 Anti-commercial commercials work well that make
fun of the hype of traditional advertising. Saturn,
Target, Sprite
 Mountain Dew wove extreme sports with wacky
humor
 Deliver attitude
 No-nonsense honesty works well too
 They like edgy programming: “Survivor”, “X Games”,
reality TV and “Friends” the ultimate Gen X show

 Make your ad visual, as they prefer “reading”
visual images
 Use pop culture in your ads. Berry Burst
Cheerios did this with the pop tune “I Think I
Love You” by the Partridge Family and the
1974 hit “Hooked on A Feeling”
 High tech, humor, parody, or edgy work

Media Consumption
 Reality TV, Friends, X-Games, VH1, That ‘70s Show
 Radio
 Internet with e-commerce functionality, feedback
option, visual imagery, pages that don’t scroll, limited
text, instant gratification, and a URL that is easy to
remember and catchy: amazon.com, monster.com,
yahoo.com
 Multiple platforms

Making It Work
 Use a tongue-in-cheek approach, make it fun and
funny, high tech, retro ’70s & ‘80s or edgy
 Don’t make it a typical ad, make it a “non-ad” so it
entertains as it slips in a subtle message
 Use pop culture music from the ‘70s and ‘80s and it’s
okay to poke fun at it
 Use visual pictures, metaphors, stories and concepts
that convey the message vs. ad copy
 Use mix of traditional and non traditional mediums

The Millennials a.k.a Gen Y
Overview
 Birth to 25
 Born 1982 to present
 Ethnically diverse (1/3rd
are minorities)
 Very tolerant of divorced HHs and gay lifestyles, but
traditional family values are more important to them
than Gen X’ers
 Have a positive, more respectful view of older people,
and they LOVE their parents
 They influence family spending

The Millennials Overview
 Use technology to connect them to other people (email,
IM, text messaging, social media, mobile apps)
 More interested in spirituality than Gen. X’ers
 A strong sense of community service
 Internet is what TV was to Boomers. They MUST have it
 “Hip” is essential
 Peer-to-peer recommendations and approval are
extremely important

 A renewed interest in reading print (they like to
research products for maximum value and cool
factor)
 91% value companies that support good causes
 They are fashion conformists: Abercrombie, Hollister,
American Eagle, Quick Silver, Aeropstale, Roxy, Zumize, Hurley
 They’re very brand conscious and self confident
 Susceptible to the next, newest fad without logical
reason

 They spend less time watching TV, listening to the
radio, listening to pre-recorded CDs, reading pop
culture magazines or consuming the major sports
 More time on internet, listening to single songs on
iPod, texting, and watching DVDs

Marketing to the Millennials
 Multimedia messages are essential
 Internet is medium of choice
 Let them interact with the brand
 Customize their online experience
 Offer online surprises for those who look hard
enough
 Be optimistic and upbeat
 Viral marketing works

Marketing to the Millennials
 Weave in multi-generational talent
 Use bright colors
 Ads that present kids as being smarter, doing good
deeds and often in teams
 Spokespeople who are nice people (Dennis Rodman
is out)
 Animals work (Taco Bell Chihuahua)
 Link message to community service

Meaning of Brand by
Generation
 Silents: a brand confers status
 Boomers: a brand means only as much as I think it
does to me
 X’ers: Brand confers status, but it’s not what other
generations think about the brand that counts, it’s
what my peers think
 Millennials: Brand confers status, “hip” and
acceptance by immediate peer group

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